SOLDIERS from the 1st Battalion The Mercian Regiment (Cheshire) should all be home from Afghanistan by the end of the month.

The troops deployed for a six month tour of duty last October with the emphasis on the phased hand-over to Afghan security forces.

Some have already returned as the Afghanis gradually take over responsibility for policing.

But the home-coming will be tinged with sadness given the battalion lost Lance Corporal Jamie Webb, 24, from Wythenshawe, in March after he died of wounds suffered during an insurgent attack on his patrol base.

Major Eddie Pickering, Mercian Regiment assistant regimental secretary for Cheshire, said Jamie’s uncle had also served with the 1st Battalion of the predecessor Cheshire Regiment and described the work as like ‘a family business at times’.

He added: “Jamie Webb is the only fatality so far, because there is still a fortnight to go. We have had some injuries but nowhere near as dramatic and horrendous as the previous tour.

“It’s combination of things. It’s partly because of the transition which sees the Afghans more in the lead and it’s also, as I understand it, been winter-time, which is not the fighting season for the Afghans.”

Home-coming parades will be held across the Mercian’s recruitment area, with a march in Ellesmere Port on Wednesday June 12 and another, to be confirmed, planned for Chester on Saturday June 15.

In addition, new colours will be presented to the Mercian Regiment in Worcester on Thursday June 6 where colours presented to the now defunct Cheshire Regiment in 1989 will be paraded for the last time before being laid up in Chester Cathedral.

For more details, contact Major Pickering at the regimental headquarters on 01244 327617.